Writer: Lester Gan Wai Lun

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Watch this if you liked: “Paranormal Activity” & “The Exorcist”

To satisfy the thirst modern day moviegoers have for scares, comes another exorcism tale and just like the rest of them, this one claims to also have been "inspired by true events". So with exorcism in mind and a micro budget to work with, director and scriptwriter William Brent Bell decided to direct and market this as a "found footage" film, to perhaps leech profits from the "Paranormal Activity" franchise hype. Good idea indeed, but has he delivered an immersive experience for the audience? No, not even close.

The horror begins in 1989 at Connecticut, where an American woman, Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley), who was supposedly possessed at the time, calls 911 confessing to a triple homicide. The victims were two priests and a nun who were attempting to exorcise the demons within her. She was then sent to an institute for the criminally insane in Rome. Fast forward 20 years later, Maria's daughter, Isabella Rossi, decides that she wants to make a documentary on her mother to find out if she's mentally ill, or demonically possessed.

Isabella tailed by her filmmaker friend sets off to Italy, seeking aid from the Vatican School of Exorcism only to find out that the Catholic Church is unwilling to assist in their documentary. She then stumbles upon two rouge clerics and begs them to perform an exorcism on her mother. Soon enough, they find out that Maria is possessed by not one, but four demons, and for whatever reasons, the writers decided to give these demons some sort of super ability to change hosts whenever they like.

So there we go, we have demons that can jump from one host to another (but yet decided to wait 20 years before doing so) and cannot be exorcised. Instead of screams and shivers, you will most likely be all giggles and laughter. The twisting and cracking of bones may still freak out the faint-hearted, but if you've seen them once, you've seen them all.

Can it possibly get worst than this? Yes it can. Not only did the film not get a proper ending, it ended in such a way that one would actually feel that they were possessed into spending good money on a ridiculous excuse of a film. Amateur directing, acting and scriptwriting combined with a flashy marketing scheme aimed to fool the masses off their money (but sadly it works), is the only way I can describe this film.

All in all, if there's a "not to watch" movie of the year, this one is top of the list right now and it will likely stay there for the rest of 2012. "The Vatican did not endorse this film nor aid in its completion." was part of the teaser of this film, and from the looks of it, I don't think anyone would endorse it as well.

"The Devil Inside" is also available in 2D in Singapore.

Cinema Online, 29 February 2012